I haven’t been here for a few days, because I’ve been
writing writing writing.
I had to finish off this book, which will be published next
March.
It’s a book that a person could work with on their own at
home, just for their own forays into the Bible, their thinking and questioning;
but mostly it’s written for small groups.
I’ve led a variety of small groups from time to time, and
always wished a book like this had been available, so I thought it was time to
write one. In leading a group (I don’t
even much care for the term ‘leading’ really) I’ve never felt inclined to be too
directive. I always felt the group
should be a place for the insights and wisdom of its members, and for the
comfort and encouragement of sharing and affirming. And for praying and singing and ministry and
drinking coffee and laughter and friendship.
The Bible study materials I managed to find always had too
much in. What I wanted was a theme, a
Bible passage, a short commentary on the theme to get us thinking, and some
searching, open questions to help start the discussion. And nothing else. No complicated timed exercises or directives
starting with “Now get the group to . . .” and interrupted by “call a halt to
this after five minutes.” There were
always instructions like “Each person in the pair should report back to the
full group on their partner’s story”; and this never worked because either the
pair had spent ages listening to one story and run out of time for the second
or else they didn’t want to tell the other person’s story – they wanted to tell
their own.
Oh, I have been a hopeless study group leader. But we drank a lot of coffee and had a lot of
fun, and now I’ve written my own book.
You can’t ‘Look Inside’ on Amazon yet because I’ve only just sent in the
manuscript. But if you lead a study
group and think the book looks interesting, and you’d like to test-drive a
sample, let me know and I’ll send you a few to have a go with – and then you
can let me know how it went. There are
sections on Bible characters, the life and ministry of Jesus, the dominant
themes of each of the four Gospels, the Christian character, the liturgical
year, and insights from the Law and the Prophets. The main approach is not on filling our heads
with data or telling us what to think, but encouraging us to find links between
our own lives and the stories of the Bible – discovering that this Book has our
story in it.
So, look out for it next spring – I’ll remind you nearer the
time – and I hope you enjoy it. And I’ve
just rushed panting from finishing that to starting on a Lent book of Bible
studies / devotions, which I have to have well underway this autumn.
But that was just explaining where I’ve been – what I really
wanted to say was something else, about lines.
You would think, from perusing media articles on ageing,
that the really Big Deal about growing old is getting wrinkles.
When I was a young teenager, helping my mother take
Meals-on-Wheels to frail elderly people in our village, we used to take a meal
to Mrs Alsford. She was old and fat with
rheumatism and wild white hair stained tobacco yellow all round the front from
smoking. She was deaf from bomb blasts
during the war; a Cockney who had somehow ended up in a small estate of
bungalows for old people in our little corner of rural Hertfordshire. And Mrs Alsford used to say to my mother, and
her voice was sad, “Don’t grow old, duck – don’t grow old.”
I don’t think it was the lines on her face she had in mind.
I’ve nursed a woman with cancer erupting from so many places
on her abdomen it was hard to find a patch of skin to stick the dressings, a woman
with necrotic pressure sores infected by perpetually oozing diahorrea who
screamed every time we entered the room (yes, don’t ask, I’ve worked in some
grim places), a man gone deaf and blind with gangrene starting in his toes who
sat motionless all day in his chair, a woman who sat crying pitifully for her
mummy, and another one who occupied the small hours of the night smearing shit
around the walls and the carpet and putting her coat on over her nightie and
under her dress before escaping from her room to ride up and down in the
elevator. Wrinkles are not the worst
thing that can happen to a person.
I see many
lines in my face reflected in the bathroom mirror first thing in the morning. But they are lines of poetry –
Leonard Cohen meets Emily Dickinson meets Sylvia Plath or something. Life has been writing poetry on my face, and
when I read it I am surprised by its kaleidoscopic observations.
The lines life has written on my face sound something like
this
and it scares and haunts and delights me.
How strange life is.
I never would have believed. But I
tell you what – with all that I have seen and gone through, and even with all
that may lie ahead – I am glad I got to come here and be part of this. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
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Er . . . right . . . I think this is a pillowcase.
Oh, this was a jolly nice long tunic-y t-shirt-y kind of
think in a really pretty colour. I got
it dirt cheap on eBay and it fitted just right.
Only problem was, it didn’t suit me.
Aaagh! A nylon
slip! Must have been a desperation purchase
– you know how it is when your skirts crawl determinedly up your legs when you
walk fast?
Some books, obviously.
Oh dear – this was a back-scrubbing brush for the shower the
Badger and I bought during our very happy holiday in Penzance visiting his
unusual and interesting family. It
looked just like the Really Good one we have at home, but first use disclosed
it to be in fact a Really Useless one, more of a back-stroking brush. We put it on the fire.
This is a man’s perfume that I bought anyway because it
smells lovely. My perspicacious mama said
if it’s a man’s perfume why don’t you give it to the Badger, you can still
smell it then. So I did.
Stuff for polishing brass.
But I don’t. If I need to polish
up my brass candlestick I sit out on the back step and scrub it with sand from
the Wretched Wretch’s sandpit. So this
went to our Hebe who uses Brasso in the process of painting coffin plates.
“What Does the Bible Really Teach?” Came from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Certain difference of opinion here. But I like how they call Jesus “the Faithful
Witness”. I think that’s beautiful. They get that from the Bible too. We do have some things in common.
Sample pots of paint.
Yet another table lamp.